Key points from article :
A Stanford Medicine team explored whether blocking an aging-related protein called 15-PGDH could help restore joint cartilage, which normally wears down with age or injury and rarely grows back on its own. They tested a small-molecule inhibitor of this protein in old mice, giving the drug either through the body or directly into the knee.
In both cases, the worn cartilage became thicker and healthier, and the cells in the joint began acting more like those in young tissue. The researchers also studied mice with injuries similar to ACL tears and found that injections twice a week for four weeks sharply reduced the chance of developing arthritis and helped the animals move more comfortably.
Human knee-replacement samples treated in the lab responded in a similar way, beginning to form new articular cartilage while lowering markers linked to inflammation and tissue breakdown. The work was led by Helen Blau and Nidhi Bhutani with contributions from colleagues at Stanford and the Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute.
Published in Science, the study points to the possibility that a pill or injection targeting this aging enzyme could one day help people rebuild their own cartilage and potentially avoid joint-replacement surgery.
